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iTunes and External Drive Issue

Hello apple community,


I have always kept my itunes library (media) on an external drive... I recently bought an old macbook (running El Capitan) and wanted to mirror my mac mini (running High Sierra) itunes setup onto that. I know, I could just share itunes libraries over wifi, but I want to use the DJ software Serato and that only syncs with the itunes of the machine it's installed on...


So, I bought a new external drive. Used Superduper! to clone my external drive containing nothing but the itunes media (named: Music) to the new one (named: MusicCopy). I also copied the itunes folder containing the .itl file from the Mac to the new external drive.


Now, on the new laptop, I deleted the old itunes folder, replaced it with the copied one. Then deleted that from the new external drive (MusicCopy). I opened itunes and all my playlists were there, but no media. I went into preferences and changed the media folder to Volumes/MusicCopy hit OK, but nothing... All the playlists are there but inside it just says there are 'No Items'...


Where have I gone wrong? Please help...

I just want to mirror the setup I have on my mac mini with my new macbook -All media on the external (MusicCopy), but I guess the itunes database files etc. on the macbook itself...


Thanks...

MacBook

Posted on Sep 7, 2019 4:40 AM

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Posted on Sep 12, 2019 5:28 PM

Thanks for input turingtest2... I shall look into consolidating my iTunes library and media...


I did manage to solve the issue...

When I first started up iTunes on the MacBook, I'd forgotten to hold option and then select the .itl file... So, I deleted the iTunes folder, copied over a fresh copy, renamed the external drive from MusicCopy to Music (same as it was on the Mac mini) and then loaded the .itl file after holding option and it has worked fine!

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3 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Sep 12, 2019 5:28 PM in response to turingtest2

Thanks for input turingtest2... I shall look into consolidating my iTunes library and media...


I did manage to solve the issue...

When I first started up iTunes on the MacBook, I'd forgotten to hold option and then select the .itl file... So, I deleted the iTunes folder, copied over a fresh copy, renamed the external drive from MusicCopy to Music (same as it was on the Mac mini) and then loaded the .itl file after holding option and it has worked fine!

iTunes and External Drive Issue

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